Learning how to laser cut and engrave was very cool! Our school has purchased an Epilog Laser Mini. It both cuts and engraves wood, acrylics, plastics, glass, denim and much more. Haydn Brown from Alfex CNC did an excellent job of walking us through setting up and identifying various parts of the machine and how to maintain it. We then had to familiarise ourselves with Adobe Illustrator to design, scale and position ready to send to the Epilog Cutter. 
Our first cut was of two birds designed by a colleague’s wife.
We were so impressed and watched with eyes glued to the cutting table.
This was followed by cutting and engraving a leaf. Each time we experimented with the settings using the guide supplied by the manufacturers.
Tim found the template for cutting and assembling the Da Vinci Hammer. It was fantastic and demonstrated the possibilities for design and prototyping with this machine.
Our girls are going to just love engraving in denim! We found the school logo and cut into ‘fake’ denim!
Shane, a science teacher, was in the mood for Christmas and found a template for a 3D christmas tree, decorated it with snowflakes and cut it out of cardboard.
The day was very hands-on with plenty of exploring and experiementing to find out what worked and what didn’t! There is still plenty to learn and to try so I’m excited for next year and how our girls will be able to prototype ideas and inventions.
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